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If you can, please help me with the endgame, it would be much appreciated. I have completed the grid and have both messages. I think I've found the impediment (six cells, which I presume should have their contents erased) and I believe that the entrapment is the eight-letter word associated with the 27 of 45 46 quote: the last five letters of that word can be found contiguous with some cells of the impediment. Three of the 'impediment' cells could be used to complete the entrapment, but that still leaves three blank cells to fill (or not, perhaps). The ten cell 'trap' eludes me unless it's the hyphenated variant of the penultimate word of the 'extra letters' clues (for which I've searched in Chambers, finding only a seemingly irrelevant strongman's trap), in which case I have much grid-staring left to do.

Hello Carpox1,

Keep reading round from your "last five letters of that word" and you will find the whole word from the quotation. Replace the six letters you have removed with the subject, which will then be entrapped, and new words (all in Chambers) will be formed.

Many thanks, pkd, all is now clear.

I'm struggling to understand some of my answers. Please explain to me how 15ac is SION, 16ac is HEARTS, 18ac is LURES, 22dn is LEGION, 44ac is KERCHIEFED and 24dn is HID. Knowing me I may have some of these wrong but any help is much appreciated. Sorry for the long list!

Hello Unclued<

SION old O inside SIN anger. Sion as in Sean (variant spelling)
HEARTS sounds like harts (deer). Heart = bosom
LURES not sure, but it fits!!
LEGION again not sure but it also fits
KERCHIEFED Fly = KED around anagram of REICH, fighter F plane stern E

My guess at LURES is LUCRES (rolls of money?) less C. Hard carrots = lures

LEGION Fifty = L maybe = EG, ION could be read as 10N which would be 10 less than 90 i.e. eighty (N is symbol for 90) if written as an imagined Roman number? Mass (extra T) for combat is def.

HID = H(orse) D(ead) (extra R) I(ndeed) being borne (bear) inside. Did squirrel = def

Very creative, pkd, but I think it's:

Lurches = rolls, minus c (cold), h (hard) = LURES

Fifty = L + (R)egion = LEGION. R is an abbreviation for 80, and a hundred is a region

I'm still stuck on 17dn and 29ac. Presumably one of them contains the non-alphanumeric character (2nd cell of 17dn?). I have MIXER for the second word of 29ac. Is that correct? Any help gratefully accepted.

barretter: 17dn is T-RAIL and 29ac is PIED PIPER.